My ongoing theme is always the truth, as I see it, and the exposure of lies, deception and manipulation wherever they exist. I remain firmly convinced that the world can no longer resist its innate urge to unite and co-operate with one another and we are very close to the point where war can no longer be an option if this transformation is to occur. Website: allenroland.com Email: allen@allenroland.com

Monday, December 30, 2013

The tide is rapidly closing in on this year but there is still
time to reflect on the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of 2013 ~ which I summarize
as the Good with the political emergence of Elizabeth Warren, the Bad reality
of the growing poverty and social inequality of America and the persistent Ugly
eye sore and continuing injustice of Guantanamo: Allen L Roland

I'm
glad 2014 is coming to a close ~ I'm tired of living on the edge, of
watching the poor get poorer and the rich get richer, of witnessing the seeming
triumph of selfishness over altruism, of experiencing the slow erosion of the
planet through climate change and global warming as well as the common deep
disappointment in our political leaders ~ that is until now.

These words of truth from T.S. Eliot give me
hope going into 2014 for the changing tide of time always brings new voices ~ and
one of the bright populist voices of 2013 is Elizabeth Warren. She is also my
early leading candidate for president in 2016.

Warren's recent
support for raising Social Security benefits is exactly what we need to shift
the national discussion on retirement income from the negative to the positive.
As Dean Baker correctly writes in AlterNet ~ " While Social Security
does keep most seniors out of poverty, the $1,300 average monthly benefit is
certainly not enough for a comfortable retirement for people who lack another
source of support.A modest increase in benefits to retirees in the
bottom half of the income distribution would make a big difference in their
standard of living at relatively little cost to the program."

Here's her recent short speech on the Senate
floor on the retirement crisis ~ "This is partly about math, but
it's partly about our values. This is about what kind of a people we are, what
kind of a country we are trying to build." 6 minute video

The BAD of 2013 is the crippling
poverty that exists throughout America ~ Poverty, joblessness, and economic
insecurity are a daily reality for the vast majority of the Americanpopulation. According to WSWS ~ By one survey,
four in five Americans have lived in near-poverty, been unemployed, or used
welfare for a year or more during their lives and replacing one big-business
politician with another will do nothing … "and
the only way to address the vast social problems of poverty and social
inequality that loom over contemporary society is to build a political party
that represents working people, armed with a program of reorganizing society on
the basis of meeting social needs, not the enrichment of the
super-wealthy."

And get this, Nearly 40 percent of all workers in the
country made less than $20,000 last year, according to data from the Social
Security Administration~ and more than
50% made less than $30,000 a rear which doesn’t include figures on benefits
such as health insurance or pensions. That’s below the federal poverty thresholdfor a family of four and close to the line for a
family of three. On average, these workers earned just $17,459.55.

Twelve years too long. Of the 779 prisoners kidnapped and
subjected to extraordinary rendition by the United States government, 693, or
89%, have been freed because there was no evidence against them. 79 more
prisoners have been cleared for release years ago but are still being held.
(photo: Reuters)

The UGLY is the continuing injustice of
Guantanamo ~ A
testament to the shame and disgrace of the 9/11 official story as well as the
ongoing isolation, torture as well as civil rights violations of the prisoners
of Guantanamo ~ the vast majority of who are innocent.

Everyone
has heard of Guantanamo and most people know it's bad ~ but you have no idea
that it is well beyond bad and is still America's ugliest symbol of moral
injustice.

So there you have it, the Good, the Bad and
the Ugly as the tide of change erases 2013 but voices are being raised, and
true leaders of the people are emerging as America faces a mid-term election in
2014 as well as another opportunity to return to our true moral values, and very possibly change history.

Allen
L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and
lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his web log and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show
TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

Friday, December 20, 2013

To find the Christ in Christmas we must go beneath the lights,
ornaments, Santa Claus and the seeming profound insanity of our present external
world and enter the sacred inner kingdom of the soul and rediscover a world of
Love and soul consciousness ~ the ultimate transmutation and stabilizing
agent for mankind: Allen L Roland

“Then
the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! What if Christmas, he
thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas...perhaps...means a
little bit more!”

On December 13, 2013, Tristin A. Shaw wrote a
thought provoking column in Information Clearing house (ICH) entitled ~ The
great Unknown ~ Modernity's Great Unraveling.

Tristin's
main point was correctly identifying our ultimate tasks as human beings ~ "The time
has come for all you compassionate observers to honestly confront the darkness
of which so much is written. So, I say, waste no more intellect critiquing the
benighted ultra-rich who we hear so much about, those contemptible faces of
capitalism, and commit your efforts to the ultimate task at hand: your moral
responsibility in the age of profound insanity."

A great question and here's my
answer ~ How can we find ourmoral responsibility in this age of profound insanity
without surrendering to love, social cooperation and altruism.

Loveis the ultimate transmutation and stabilizing agent for
mankind ~ whereas we all eventually evolve from
ego consciousness to soul consciousness through the proven
innatedriving
evolutionary force of social cooperation and altruism, not survival of the
fittest or the strategies and devices of the ego.

I like Courtney Walsh's definition of love
where he correctly says ~ "Love doesn't require the condition of
perfection. It only asks that you show up and do your best. That you stay
present and feel fully. That you shine and fly and laugh and cry and hurt and
heal and fall and get back up and play and work and live and die as YOU. It's
enough ~ it's plenty "andis,
in itself, an act of love.

Love is all about authenticity and the
willingness to be vulnerable ~ it is the ultimate YES to yourself and is the
foundation of self love as well as self acceptance and worthiness.

Once that individual shift to our true selfis accomplished,
through love and gratefulness, we begin to see through different eyes as well as experiencea new state of
consciousness ~ a Unified
Fieldof soul consciousness that exists beyond time and space and
whose principle property is the universal urge to unite~and we are all a living part of it.

Tristan is absolutely correct
when he writes"The suffering born of darkness, through which the human
species is now propelled, will open up the grand doors of Justice, restoring a
resonant harmony that corrects the old and fortifies the new, that paves
alternative possibilities for social and spiritual liberty and that shatters
the amoral nature of systemic structures like capitalism. And once the smoke
is settled and fate unfolded, a new consciousness will have arisen. A
consciousness that sees the ALL as “I” and the “I” as ALL. A consciousness
that does not condemn the past (for condemnation is the enemy of
understanding), but understands it."

As such, the great unravelingof mankind becomes a far greater unveiling of a
new consciousness ~ a transformationof
awareness and a shift in priorities from selfishness to service.

In other words, by surrendering to
love, self-forgiveness and gratefulness we not only begin to see through
different eyes but wealsohumbly recognize and
playour part in
this slowly evolving all-encompassing loving plan. But we alsofinally understand our past ~ as I most certainly doas well as empower othersto do.

In my healingwork
with over 60 combat veterans with PTSD, I have essentially tapped into their
innate need to love, through gratefulness, which is far greater than their
military imposed will to hate~ as well
as a key ingredient in their self-healing process.

As such,PTSD is a form of Post
Traumatic Heart Disorder and many people suffer the same symptoms of combat
veterans with PTSD when they have been rejected, abandoned, hurtor felt
guilt in a love relationship.

Here's a classic holidayexample of this dramaticshift in consciousness as well as seeing
through different eyes as written by Charles
Dickens and immortalized in the Christmas Carol ~ but it is also the same shift
in consciousness, as well as a shift from selfishness to service,that I have seen in countless
clients, especially combat veterans with PTSD, who have broken through their
guilt and unworthiness issues and embraced their far deeperfeelings of love,gratefulness,
joy, delight and service.

In Stave One
of Charles Dickens A
Christmas Carol when Scrooge first encounters(his former deceased partner)Marley's Ghost, the Ghost asks: Man
of the worldly mind, do you believe in me or not?I do,
I must, Scrooge
replies, but why do spirits walk the earth and why do they come to
me?

Marley's
Ghost answers him: It is required of every man that the spirit within him
should walk abroad among his fellow men, and travel far and wide; and if that
spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is
doomed to wander through the world and witness what it cannot share but might
have shared on earth and turned to happiness!

But
you were always a good man of business, falters Scrooge, trying to console
the Ghost.

Business! cries Marley's
Ghost, wringing its hands. " Mankind was my business. The common
welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all
my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop in the water of the great
ocean of my business."

Precisely, Mr Dickens and when we finally go
beyond the fear, pain and guilt of how we have lived our lives ~ we tap into a
well of gratefulness, joy and delight and experience exactly what Scrooge
profoundlyexclaimed andfelt on Christmas morning ~ "I'm not the man I was."

In the film version of Dickens' classic, A
Christmas Carol, starring Alistair Sims, Scrooge wakes up
transformed after being visited by the Ghost of Christmas Future ~ and I
maintain that mankind is already getting painful glimpses of Christmas futurein the form of dramatic climate change and we're
also being asked to transform before it's too late. 7 minute classic video ~

Once
again,it's my guess that we have already
been visited by the ghost of Christmas future in the form of severe climate
change
and that we will be reluctantly forced to break down our social barriers and
cooperate with one another within the next ten years or face the potential of
extinction. Here's Dahr Jamail with the latest climate change scoreboard and
it's pretty terrifying. See article

In the spirit and delight of one, who is also not the
person I once was, but whose eyes have been opened
through love,gratefulness, celebration and service ~ Merry Christmasbut pleasetake
note ~there may not be too many more
unless we begin to love one another in the evolutionary spirit of social
cooperation and altruism.

Thus,
finding the Christ in Christmas means finding the Christ within ourselves and
letting that light shine forth to all othersthroughout
the year.

“I
will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”~ Charles Dickens

Allen
L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and
lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his web log and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show
TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

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About Me

I'm a disabled active duty Navy veteran who was born in Boston, Massachusetts, survived a dysfunctional family, pursued and lived my dreams, including being a Navy carrier fighter pilot. I found myself by fully opening my heart, wrote three books, sired four children and I'm still living my ultimate dream by making a difference from a place of celebration and service. My 1998 PhD dissertation on the UNIFIED FIELD was chosen by Noetic Science and Common Boundary as one of the top three world finalists on combining psychology and spirituality. I retired from my private practice in 2014, because of my service connected asbestosis related lung disease, and live in Antioch, California but still remain involved as a featured columnist on Veterans Today and heart centered spiritual consultant and advisor ~ particularly with combat veterans with PTSD as well as others with PTHD ( Post Traumatic Heart Disorder).